


Chaotic Web

by Cynder2013



Series: The Young Hero Support Group [4]
Category: DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cassie Sandsmark is a Daughter of Zeus, Gen, Minor Injuries, Spiders, Tim Drake is Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynder2013/pseuds/Cynder2013
Summary: Cassie just has to babysit for a few hours. It's no big deal...except for who she's babysitting.(Do not read this if you're scared of spiders.)
Series: The Young Hero Support Group [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066049
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	Chaotic Web

**Author's Note:**

> Last warning for arachnophobes to make a run for it.

When Cassie arrives at Titans Tower carrying a fuzzy black and brown spider with a body the size of a bowling ball, the only person who doesn’t immediately back away from her is Gar. Joey goes as far as leaving the room.

“Cassie, why?” Kon asks.

“Babysitting,” Cassie says.

“For who?” Bart’s voice turns into a squeak by the end of his question. “Shelob?”

“Arachne. Don’t ask.” Cassie sighs. “My mom’s scared of spiders so I can’t take him home. Can we please stay here?”

The Titans remaining in the living room look at each other.

“Of course,” Vic says.

Gar crouches so he’s at eye level with the spider. “Hi, cutie. Aren’t you adorable?”

It probably says something about them that Gar baby-talking a giant spider isn’t the weirdest thing any of them have seen.

The spider waves one of his legs and boops Gar’s nose.

“His name is Lennox,” Cassie says. “He’s two. Please don’t swear around him.”

“Is he venomous?” Tim asks.

Cassie shakes her head.

When Cassie finally puts Lennox down it takes less than three seconds before he’s on the ceiling. Considering he’s a spider it’s a situation that’s not unexpected. It’s probably safe for him to be up there, so Gar turns on some toddler-friendly cartoons and they don’t make a fuss.

The Teen Titans drift away in ones and twos to do their own things until only Cassie and Tim are left. Tim is focused on the essay he has due on Monday, so he doesn’t notice when Lennox begins crawling across the ceiling in the direction of the kitchen table where he’s working. Cassie keeps a close eye on them but she has no idea how to react when Lennox drops down right on top of Tim’s keyboard.

Tim lets out a very un-Batlike screech. He isn’t scared—Tim is never scared—just startled, as anyone would be if they had a giant spider nearly land on their head. Cassie is halfway to the table when Lennox screeches in response and in a second his fangs are buried in Tim’s forearm.

The no swearing rule is out the window, but Tim is cursing in Russian so it’s not that bad.

The sounds of running come from the directions of the rooms their friends have dispersed to. Bart and Kon are first on the scene. Neither of them seems to know how to handle what’s happening.

“First aid kit,” Cassie says, before turning her attention to convincing Lennox to let go of Tim. “Come on, buddy, Uncle Tim didn’t mean to scare you. You’re okay.”

“Why am I ‘Uncle Tim’?” Tim asks through gritted teeth.

“Because don’t scare the kid, that’s why,” Cassie says.

“Are you sure he’s not venomous?” Kon asks. Cassie glares at him. “Definitely not venomous, got it.” 

It takes a few minutes to coax Lennox’s fangs out of Tim’s arm. Kon starts patching Tim up, because somehow the nigh invulnerable Boy of Steel has the most experience with puncture wounds aside from Robin, while Cassie and Gar calm Lennox down. Tim and Kon manage to avoid getting blood on the floor, which is nice. Dried blood is always a pain to clean.

“How long are you supposed to babysit for?” Bart asks.

Cassie checks the clock. “Another hour.”

Bart speeds away and comes back in the blink of an eye carrying a bag of wooden blocks and a toy firetruck. He raises his eyebrows questioningly. Cassie nods.

Lennox and Bart come up with a game where Bart piles up the blocks and Lennox knocks them over with the firetruck. Both of them are laughing and no one else is getting hurt, so Cassie leaves them to it. Bart never got a chance to be a kid before he came to them from the future. None of them are going to even think about saying he shouldn’t be playing like he’s a toddler too.

“No one is telling B about this,” Tim says. “Or Nightwing. They’ll never let me live it down.” Dick would have a field day if he found out that Tim had been caught off guard by a two-year-old, giant spider or not.

“What about Oracle?” Raven asks.

Tim shrugs. “She already knows.”

Gar shakes his head. “Dude, I’m not going to argue that Oracle shouldn’t be all-knowing, but it’s still kind of creepy.”

Tim shrugs again.

“You’ve obviously never met an actual oracle,” Cassie says. “They’re really creepy.” The Oracle of Delphi had been a mummy for how long before Rachel Dare?

“They’re not Bats,” Gar says.

That starts a conversation about how half of Gotham thinks the Bats are demons and cryptids, which leads into Kon joking that Tim might develop spider powers and have to rebrand, which leads to Tim revealing that there actually is a superhero with spider powers operating out of Toronto, Canada. It’s a whole thing. The hour passes quickly.

Cassie is the first on her feet when Arachne arrives in a shower of light, a second faster than Raven. The Mother of Spiders is in mostly human form and wearing a shimmering white peplos with silver spider pins at the shoulders. The only things making it clear that she’s other-than-human are the eight black eyes covering the upper half of her face.

“Hi,” Bart says.

Arachne smiles. “Hello, children, daughter of Zeus...daughter of Trigon.”

Raven meets Arachne’s gaze and the two of them have a discussion without words. After a moment, Raven inclines her head.

Lennox is torn between being reluctant to leave and happy that his mother is there. He settles for clinging to her back and looking at the Teen Titans longingly over her shoulder. Arachne kisses his head.

“Thank you for taking care of him,” Arachne says. “Look away now unless you’d like your brains to melt.”

Cassie quickly turns away from Arachne and her friends follow suit. There’s a bright, burning flash of light and when they look back Arachne and Lennox are gone.

The group is silent for a few moments. Then Tim collapses back onto the couch. As if that’s a cue, the rest of them retake their seats. 

Tim sighs and puts his head in his hands. “Cassie, please never babysit for a god again.”

“I’m a demigod,” Cassie says. “I don’t exactly get a choice about these things.”


End file.
